I believe my first version was 9.x, but I am now up to version 12.10 and the Unity interface.

Originally, I installed Linux because my PC at the time had very limited hardware. The CPU was a single core chip and the memory was barely useful with just 1GB on board. There wasn't much else I could do to the rig that would allow Windows XP to run better or even upgrade to a newer version of Windows. Via my Google+ and Twitter feed, I polled my followers and circles. I asked "Why are you using Linux on your computer?" The feedback was tremendous from my fellow geeks. Here are the results.

Image credit Ant Pruitt for aGNUdomain

I based the poll question on the three fairly-broad parameters above:

Hardware limitations on current PC (low RAM, slower CPU, etc ...)

To better protect users from malware

To geek-out with something new

As you can see from the pie chart, my circles and followers wanted to just geek-out. I can't disagree. I enjoy playing around with my Linux distro as well as adding different free and open source software (FOSS) for daily use.

Those that voted also had an opportunity to comment on the poll. Sure, geeking-out on something new was the poll's leading vote recipient, but most of the comments were dealing more with how powerful Linux can be, as well as support for FOSS. Hobbyist developer and XDA-Developers contributer Adam Outler says via Google+:

Ant Pruitt, your poll is invalid. I am an avid Linux user but I don't use it for any of the reasons in your poll. I support open source. I dislike having to pay when there are open source solutions whereby using those solutions contributes in a small way to betterment of the future of software.

I enjoyed using Apache for serving up my multimedia over 3G as well as Plex Media Server. All are great tools.

So the verdict is in, so far. Those of us currently running a Linux distro are believers of supporting the free and open source platform, and we enjoy getting more performance out of computers that other operating systems haven't been able to provide.

02/13/2013

aGNUdomain.net unplugged: As we ramp up our upcoming aGNUdomain.net site, I thought this Linux Command Cheat Sheet from Dave Child was ideal -- it is the money if you want Linux commands at your fingertips or as a Valentine's Day 2013 gift for someone you love who loves Linux. And it's free, courtesy cheatography.com. Yum. Beats chocolate. Not diamonds, though.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: The whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux ...

Many users do not understand the difference between the kernel, which is Linux, and the whole system, which they also call “Linux.” The ambiguous use of the name doesn't help people understand. These users often think that Linus Torvalds developed the whole operating system in 1991, with a bit of help ...

Programmers generally know that Linux is a kernel. But since they have generally heard the whole system called “Linux” as well, they often envisage a history that would justify naming the whole system after the kernel. For example, many believe that once Linus Torvalds finished writing Linux, the kernel, its users looked around for other free software to go with it, and found that (for no particular reason) most everything necessary to make a Unix-like system was already available ...

They found an incomplete GNU, though. The free software was the end result only and solely, Stallman says, because the GNU Project was on a project to build it since the mid 1980s.

Read The GNU Manifesto. In it, Stallman and his fellows clearly spelled out their mission of creating a free, open-sounce (and Unix-like, in that) system. Do you recall the initial announcement back then? That initial announcement presciently set out the goals and plans for GNU.

But did you know that the GNU system was alm? By the time Linux was started, GNU was almost finished by the time Linus Torvalds started to work on his version of the Unix-like kernel, now known as Linux.

And those, like the work of Don Knuth (TeX) and Bob Scheifler (Remember X Window, the 1990s GUI?), were supposed to be projects for a single task.

In his excellent piece on gnu.org, Stallman gives us a rhetorical well worth considering:

If we tried to measure the GNU Project's contribution in this way, what would we conclude? One CD-ROM vendor found that in their “Linux distribution,” GNU software was the largest single contingent, around 28% of the total source code, and this included some of the essential major components without which there could be no system. Linux itself was about 3 percent (then) ... the proportions in 2008 (were) similar. Linux (was at) 1.5 percent and GNU packages were 15 percent ... so if you were going to pick a name for the system based on who wrote the programs in the system, the most appropriate single choice would be “GNU.”

Note, again, as Stallman does, that the GNU Project never was a project for developing a text editor. "It was not a project to develop a C compiler, although we did that," he writes. "The GNU Project set out to develop a complete free Unix-like system: GNU."

Torvalds of course played a huge role. His Linux in 1992 completed GNU to create a combined Linux/GNU that was free, open, workable and extensible.

Bottom line, as Stallman points out, calling Linux the word "Linux" is confusing because it clouds the fact that, while the kernel in fact is Linux. But the system as a whole is GNU -- plus Linux. Tell your friends. Education is good.

02/08/2013

The Chromebook has been an interesting topic of discussion in the mainstream world of tech. Why? First off, the price. Next, the hardware and software.

Image credit: Ant Pruitt for aGNUdomain.net

I personally would love to get my hands on one of the Chromebooks available on the market today. As a computer hobbyist, I would enjoy diving in and trying to discover more and more about the Chrome OS. What about you? Is this a great OS for everyone else?